Excerpt from the beginning of Haven: https://www.cbc.ca/books/emma-donoghue-s-historical-fiction-book-haven-imagines-ireland-around-the-year-600-read-an-excerpt-now-1.6517709 A beautiful and timely novel about isolation, passion and the conflict between obedience and self-preservation. The island setting and the characters stayed with me long after I finished reading.’ - Sarah Moss Donoghue's characterizations of the three men, her vivid imagining of the measures they must take to survive, and her beautiful descriptions of the landscape and wildlife — puffins galore — make this book readable even for those who don't care much about medieval Christianity.'- Minneapolis Star Tribune The author provides some history in a note at the end which relates that the island of Greater Skellig of this novel has been known as Skellig Michael since before 1044. This book kept me up half the night - I was unable to put it down, and read it in one spellbound gulp. It is everything a novel should be: compassionate, unpredictable, and questioning. Haven is Donoghue at her strange, unsettling best.' - Maggie O'Farrell

The novel’s tension and suspense really begin to crystallize. In classic Donoghue narrative style, it all unfolds in a confined space under cramped conditions ... convincingly conveyed by Donoghue’s raw descriptions and her exceptional skill with emotionally authentic dialogue' - Chicago Review of Books

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Trian is the youngest and has been at the monastery since he was thirteen. Always hungry and always clumsy, Trian is the first to volunteer. Cormac has been a convert for fifteen years since the death of his wife and children from the plague. He suffered with the illness but was spared. And Artt is the elusive stranger, scholar, priest who will become their Prior. He swears the other two monks, a young man and an older one, to obedience and off they go in a tiny boat in search of their new home. They take few supplies because their boat is so small, and because Aart believes "God" will supply them with all they need. Six years Trian has been there, living among the monks when he is called upon to ferry this man, Artt, he’d only met the day before. Artt with the ’bearing of a warrior king’ who carries himself as though he is in a constant state of pious appeal. A man who, as a child, sought out a life of divinity at the tender age of seven, and continued to reach for higher understanding until he had outgrown each of the holy men who had shared their wisdom, and traveled throughout Ireland sharing the Gospel on this ’pagan-gripped continent’converting several tribes along the way. In short, very few readers have been praying for a novel like this. But “Haven” creates an eerie, meditative atmosphere that should resonate with anyone willing to think deeply about the blessings and costs of devoting one’s life to a transcendent cause. Before you start your journey, use the My Haven app* or log in to haven.com/experience to view and save your personalised map to navigate to your holiday home on park.

After a vivid dream, Brother Artt confides to the Abbot that he must embark on this journey with the two monks that were in his dream; his companions are to be Cormac, an elderly monk who came to the abby and his vocation late in life after his wife and family were violently taken from him during the plague, a survivor of many tragedies but bascially one who was skilled in architecture and building as well as gardening. And the second monk was Trian, a young and gangly youthful man that had been dropped off to the monastary six years ago but had learned to adapt to his monastic surroundings. Guests that book a Haven break will receive a Play Pass giving them access to free entertainment and the opportunity to book free swimming slots and a selection of free and paid activities (subject to availability). Self-catering offersI was with an old monk, and a young one….an instruction to withdraw from the world…with two companions, find this island, and found a monastic retreat.’